


The Futures We Leave

by KenshinSusano



Category: Star Fox Series
Genre: Childhood Memories, Life Isn't Easy, M/M, Romance, Slash, Violence, long story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-02
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-03-20 20:45:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3664335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KenshinSusano/pseuds/KenshinSusano
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Can you feel that Fox? That constant beat in your chest? Can you hear what it's telling you?" Fox had never been one for 'routine' or 'plain' but what had been labeled such turned out to be so much more. A new enemy, a new companion, and new trials to overcome. Can Fox deal with finding out much more about everyone he ever knew than he ever wanted to know?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Fresh Start

The day had droned on, meeting after meeting; interview after interview, until the orange fox couldn’t take it anymore. “Peppy, if anyone asks where I went, just tell them that I had something important to attend to, will you?” Fox grumbled between the rotation of speakers for the council, shaking his head as he ran his hand along the back of his neck to try to calm down his nerves. He never was one for sitting around all day and listening to people complain about financial troubles this, or political standing that.  The vulpine spun on his heel and quickly exited the room before another reporter could flag him down. _For the love of the gods, if I had to listen to one more of that mindless droning, I’d probably have shot someone._ He thought to himself with a tired groan.

“Ah, there you are, Fox.” Spoke a voice from a few yards behind him and to his left. “ I just had some official wonder where you went. Must be tough being a celebrity.” The voice of the Katinian Defense captain called with a light chuckle. “It’s been a while, Fox.”

“yeah, It has, Bill. Captain now, huh? The times have treated you well.” Fox chuckled, which prompted the husky to clap him on the shoulder. “I guess I shouldn’t have expected less from my academy flight-mate.” He grinned slightly, letting himself relive some of the old memories.

“yeah, but had your ass not shown up and saved us from that giant flying mothership thing back in the Great War, We wouldn’t be here having this conversation, commander.” Bill grinned. He knew Fox hated the official title he was given, seeing himself as an equal to his squad mates, instead of their commanding officer.  “Heh, but anyways, I told the guy looking for ya that I hadn’t seen ya. I can understand just how hard it can be to deal with so many politicians.” He laughed.

“Yeah, they’re definitely something stupid. The only problem I have is that they just like to talk and talk and talk. They never really seem to sound convincing.” Fox grumbled. He could barely hold back his anger whenever he had to listen to the self-entitled politicians who were always only thinking about the Cornerian populace in terms of numbers, instead of terms of actual living people with their own troubles. .

“You know that's right. Just the other day I had to listen to a guy talk about how the upper class needs to be cut off from everyone else due to crime rates or something. He definitely didn't sound at all convinced of his own argument.” Bill sighed, shaking his head as he rubbed the bridge of his snout.  “Soon they’ll be deciding to cut off the Blue District off from the rest of the surrounding area, huh?” he grumbled.

“Yeah, well I’m sure General Pepper won’t let it get that far.” Fox muttered, shaking his head despairingly at what the higher-ups of the planet were deciding was best for its inhabitants. He chewed on his lower lip in a nervous habit as he felt the hair on the back of his neck raise up in a familiar warning that some stupid reporter was nearby. An old habit that didn’t die hard, he supposed. Fox looked around and bit back a curse as he saw a short old badger, microphone in hand, and camera crew following him. “Sorry to cut the conversation short, Bill, but I’d rather not talk to another reporter today.” He explained hurriedly, ignoring the husky’s bark of laughter as he scurried away quietly to avoid detection by the said badger. He managed to slip away easily, not that it surprised him. The reporters he had encountered so far were not the brightest. He still didn’t feel like he should have left Peppy like that, but hell if he would listen to more “Mr.McCloud”s from unknown strangers. He sighed again.

Solar had just reached its peak in the sky, signaling that it was just reaching noon. “ugh, Four hours and that press conference is still going on?” the vulpine murmured to himself, rolling emerald green eyes at the sidewalk in front of his boots.  “I should probably get away from here before a crowd leaves and spots me.” He grumbled. Sure he was taking drastic measures to avoid simple reporters, but it was justified; at least to himself.

A beep from his communicator told him that he had an incoming text message. **The conference is ending, finally. Watch out for crowds Fox. And Pepper said he wanted to speak to you later, by the way. We’ll stop by the Hotel rooms after a bit. See you there. Dont' do anything dumb –Slippy.**

Fox chuckled as he typed up a reply, glad that his teammates were looking out for him.  **Thanks for the heads up Slips. Mind getting me some food from the restaurant? I'm going to go out for a walk around the park.**

He nodded when Slippy's affirmative response came back. They had been friends long enough that the toad knew what he didn't eat. He hopped on the rental hoverbike, put on his helmet, and sped off in the direction of central park. He barely registered the cars passing him as he lost himself in his thoughts. It didn't take long to reach his destination, the trees and flowers of the large park just about the only natural spot on the whole planet at this point. He parked in the lot and sighed, pulling up his communicator and dialing the familiar signal to contact the old bloodhound. 

“Ah, Fox, how nice of you to finally call, I was beginning to think that your teammates didn’t let you get word that I need to speak to you about a mission.” _Speak of the good General, and he shall be there_ Fox thought, biting back a sigh from his lips. “By the way, it’s a shame you left the Press Conference the time you did, they had just brought out the clowns and dancing midgets." he chuckled, grinning at the vulpine's scoff and eye roll. 

“Yeah yeah, Must have been amusing.” The retort slid off of Fox’s tongue as naturally as ever. He was too used to this playful banter between him and the General. “So what do you need us to do?” he asked, deciding to get right down to the heart off things before General Pepper could make any more comments about how he should have stayed at that stuffy meeting anyway.

“We’ve received Distress signals from an abandoned base on Fichina. Orion base has been broadcasting a distress signal for the past few days, and the content of the message is encrypted something fierce. I don’t know the specifics, but the Intel division is still having a bit of trouble pinpointing the exact origin of the code.” Pepper explained, occasionally stopping to take a sip of water that had been placed just out of the holoscanner’s field of vision.

“Uh-huh. And so instead of sending a trained military squad out, you’re going to send mercenaries like us to take a look at it instead?” Fox rolled his eyes again, sarcasm dripping from his words as was his normal protocol when dealing with an old friend like Pepper. “What could we do that a small squadron couldn’t? I mean, Not to say we won’t do it, and I’m sure the pay is pretty good as well.” He quickly affirmed at Pepper’s chuckle and the glint in his eyes that told Fox that he would do just as the vulpine suggested if the idea came up any other time.

“Well, for one, it’d get you and your team off planet and away from the politics again, and give you something to do. The only downside is you’d have to take a military cruiser.” Pepper explained again, noticing Fox’s wince when he was reminded that the Great Fox was still currently out of commission due to the assault on the Aparoid home world.   “But, other than that, it’d be a free trip, easy mission, and even easier money.” He chuckled. “Given it doesn’t turn into a life-or-death situation anyway.” Pepper smiled slightly, ignoring Fox’s despaired eye roll at the reminder of how every one of the missions he takes ends up taking the turn for the worst.

“Fine, we’ll do it. When do we leave, sir?” Fox said after grumbling to himself for a few moments. He grabbed a notepad nearby and got ready to write information down. No use telling his teammates if he forgot the information he had been told before they got back from their little excursion. And knowing Falco, he probably wanted to lead the other three off on some sort of bar binge and get them wasted, so who knew when the trio would be back. He looked at the hologram of the bloodhound, who was wearing an amused expression at his use of a pen and paper instead of the usual holopad. “What? I like to have something that won’t get accidentally erased for important information.” Fox muttered, as if the general’s scrutiny was an admonishment for using ‘primitive technology’.

“Heh, no no, I can understand the sentiment. But you are scheduled to leave Tomorrow morning at 0900 from the local spaceport. We are having a carrier load your Arwings and fly it’s way over to the Green-Sector Spaceport. It will be waiting for you at the appropriate time for the Rendezvous.” Pepper chuckled as the vulpine mercenary rolled his eyes yet again.  “Good luck on the Job, Fox. Pepper out.” Pepper murmured curtly as his hologram disappeared, leaving Fox to slump into the nearby couch and sigh.

“Great, another mission, right after a stuffy conference, and right in the damn morning.” Fox sighed. _Guess it can’t be helped. At least it’s an easy one. But the distress signal has been going for days, he said. And they have a rather powerful encryption on the signal. They don’t want anyone getting to that message other than a certain person, and judging by how Pepper wanted us to go instead of a generic squad, it must have been us this person needed to see._ Fox’s musings were brought to an end as a loud crash brought his attention to the entrance hall of the large penthouse suite. His hand directly shot to where his trusty FS-18 blaster pistol had usually rested. He stumbled momentarily when he didn’t meet the worn handle. His fears were removed entirely when he heard the loud voice of Falco Lombardi singing some song off the radio badly out of tune, obviously smashed beyond normal for the falcon. He sighed, shaking his head as he worked to smooth the fur on his tail that had stuck straight out in his distress.

“Oh hey Fox! There you are. We were looking all over for ya buddy.” Falco slurred, stumbling over to the vulpine and putting a wing around his shoulder. The man reeked of cheap alcohol. “Found this cute vixen who was dying to meet ya, bud.” He grinned.  “I mean god, You two saw the rack on her, didn’t ya!?” Falco exclaimed, throwing his arms out in a rather large berth in front of his chest, as if to try to emulate the vixen’s bust. “God, must have easily been Double D’s. Had she not been so into meeting the ‘great Fox McCloud’ I might have had a go at her.” He grinned before Fox gently pushed him out of his personal space.

Fox rolled his eyes at the falcon’s antics, sighing. “Well you better sober up soon, Falco. We’ve got a mission to go on tomorrow, and if you’re too busy having a hangover, I will personally drag you into a cab.” He laughed at Falco’s horrified expression, deciding that it was more fun to mess with his friend’s mind at the moment. “I might just tie you to the roof on the way to the spaceport.” He laughed even harder as the falcon worked to repress a cry of despair at the thought. “But all jokes aside, the rendezvous is supposed to be at 0900 tomorrow morning. So we need to be up bright and early to be ready.  The mission is to investigate a rather persistent distress signal in Orion base in Fichina, so we need to be ready for the travel. A military cruiser will be taking us and our Arwings to the planet. That’s all. Dismissed.” He finished, more out of habit than actual need to get everyone to do their thing. Peppy merely nodded and chuckled softly, heading to his own room within the suite.

“Aw come on Fox. That’s not fair, tying me up to the roof of the cab.” Falco grumbled, already starting to fall asleep due to the large amount of alcohol in his system.  He seemed to fully believe Fox’s threat. Fox helped the bird into his room and into the bed, sighing. Tomorrow was going to be a long day of dealing with Falco’s mutterings about his hangover. He turned out the lights as he heard Falco’s even snoring quickly after his head hit the pillow.

_I’m hoping this all goes as well as Pepper says it should…_


	2. A Change of Pace

Fox paced anxiously in the small room in their assigned hotel, muttering angrily under his breath. Sleep had failed to overcome him, and his brain was working in overtime to try to plan ahead for anything that could possibly go wrong due to his positively sterling track record of always putting his team in danger due to unpreparedness. He just hoped that he could make it less dangerous for them, and if he could, he'd do the mission alone but he needed his crew to run the ship. 

"You know Fox, pacing isn't going to make it go by any faster, either." Peppy chuckled from the doorframe, startling the unaware vulpine. "Sorry if I startled you, Fox. I'm kind of in the same situation too." He smiled, sipping at a cup of tea held in his hands. "You sure about taking this mission, Fox?" the hare asked with an aside glance at the distraught Captain. The hare could tell something other than the mission was on his surrogate son's mind, and he was determined to put it to rest. 

"I'm not really sure about the mission itself, no. Why would the general ask for our help specifically instead of sending a different squad of mercenaries out there? Unless there's something he's not telling us about that signal. In which case, this could turn from a good opportunity to something very bad." Fox sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "And more importantly, wasn't Orion base abandoned right after the Lylat war took place?"

"Mhm. That's been bothering me as well. We haven't heard of anything happening from the Orion quarry on Fichina, and all of a sudden there's a distress signal? I've got a bad feeling that this is a trap Fox." The old lapine sighed, taking another sip of his tea. "If it is a trap, shouldn't we have the cruiser waiting in orbit for quick retreat?" He asked, eying the fox for any of his ticks to give away his true intentions. He knew that the younger vulpine would do just what his father would do if he could and leave his crew out of it to safety. 

"From what I gathered, they're just going to give the cruiser to us for missions anyway, so for the most part it's ours. At least until we get the Great Fox back to working condition. We'll work something out once we're out of Corneria's atmosphere and nearing Fichina. Hopefully this cruiser's warp drives aren't too bad." Fox mused, resting his chin on his hands as he went over possible escape plans in his head. No matter how hard he tried, though, there was still a sinking feeling in his gut.  _There's no possible way this mission could just be a routine distress response._  He thought grimly.

"Well, whatever the case, it wouldn't hurt to leave someone in the cruiser to serve as a sort of anchor, right?" Peppy asked. Insight seemed to be a gift to the old hare, if his ability to plan was any indication. "That way we'd have someone in orbit to alert us if anything breached scanners or whatever happens." Fox couldn't help but think that the old hare had been trying to tell him something, but he couldn't figure out what. 

"Yeah. I'm assuming that's your way of volunteering, huh Peppy?" Fox grinned, rolling his eyes at Peppy's chuckle and unassuming shrug. "Although we don't need three of us on the surface. I say you and Slippy stay on the cruiser and Falco and I will go to the surface. The two of us have better combat ability, and neither of us are cold blooded." He laughed. As sound as this plan seemed, he had to worry about something happening to the cruiser in orbit. There was always something bound to go wrong in these missions.

"Ah, that's actually a good idea, Fox." Peppy chuckled, giving an appreciative nod at the fact that he wouldn't have to go down to the icy planet. He sighed as he heard a loud groan a few rooms over, indicating Falco had woken and realized the massive hangover he was going to recover from. "Well, looks like Falco is up, and from the sounds of it, Slippy as well." He nodded solemnly as he looked at Fox's clock, chuckling as he saw the 0750 lit up on the holoclock.

"Huh, well that was fast." Fox sighed, flopping back against his bed in a decidedly un-commanderly fashion. "Well, I guess I'll start getting ready, cause heaven knows Falco won't start getting ready until we're 10 minutes to launch." He grumbled, shaking his head at the falcon in his mind.  _He'll be the death of me, that's for sure._  He rolled his eyes yet again as he stood up, making his way to the attached bathroom in the master bedroom of the suite.

As he stepped into the shower, letting the hot water run down his back, he let his thoughts wander.  _There are so many ways this mission can go wrong, it's just unsettling. Not to mention that every simple mission we've been on usually ends in disaster. Knowing our luck it'll just be like that capture mission on Macbeth involving that so-called 'precious cargo'. Whatever. As long as Star Wolf doesn't show up like they usually do, we'll be a hell of a lot better off._  He sighed as he rinsed the soap off of his fur, finally turning the water off and stepping out to dry.

"Fox, ready to leave?" Slippy's voice called from behind the bathroom door. " It's 8:20. The spaceport is at least 15 minutes away." He explained, seeming a little too excited for someone who had trouble waking up before noon. He gave the toad a noncommittal response about being out in a minute. Fox ran a comb through his fur quickly and slid on his flight suit, tying the red scarf around his neck last before he left the room, making sure to grab his watch.

"Alright team, let's grab the cab and get to the Spaceport. Launch is in forty minutes. Don't want to be late, do we?" he grinned, doing his best to make some sort of pre-flight speech like they did in the academy.

* * *

Fox wasn't sure what to expect upon arriving at the Spaceport. Part of him expected a large banner saying "Welcome StarFox" or something equally ridiculous, but the normality of the place startled him. He shouldn't have expected anything different from the Green-Port, what with it being the rich sector, and the rich hardly left their houses for anything their personal servants could do for them. He sighed as he made his way to the small military sector within the spaceport, his team in tow. He made a note to make fun of Falco for getting himself into the hangover he had now. The falcon was staggering around slightly and groaning each time someone said something in his general direction.  _Serves him right, for getting drunk right before the mission._ Fox chuckled to himself.

"Ah, team StarFox, it's a pleasure to be working with you. The  _Aquilos_  will be here in a couple of minutes. We're sorry for the inconvenience. "A rather stout looking buck stated, adjusting his coat in an effort to appear busy. The roar of engines and the subtle whine of the G-Diffusers of various ships started to drown out any other words that the buck might have said. After a few hand gestures from the stout male, the crew found themselves winding through various corridors in a different area of the spaceport, where less noise reached the rooms. The large figure of the  _Aquilos_  loomed in the viewports. It's rounded bulk looked far simpler than Fox had expected.

"That's the  _Aquilos_?" Fox asked, sighing. He had expected something a bit more grandiose than this. The  _Aquilos_  looked only slightly smaller than the Great Fox ever was. "It looks tiny." He grumbled, shaking his head as the buck led the crew to the loading bay for the cruiser. "Are you sure this thing can even hold our Arwings and a Landmaster?" Fox asked, raising a brow in question.

"Yes, we're sure it can, . The Arwings and the Landmaster are already in the ship's launch bay, and are ready for deployment at any time. Launch is in 30 minutes, please be ready by then." The buck stated rather curtly before turning on his heel and stalking away, presumably annoyed at the vulpine's disbelief. Fox rolled his eyes at the buck's retreating figure before another familiar face brought him out of his mental ranting.

"Ah, Fox. Glad to see you made it on time. I was afraid you'd be caught up with something the way Falco went out to the bars first thing after the ceremonial banquet was over." General Pepper chuckled as he made his way over to Fox, a smaller female cardinal following behind him. "Oh, I should probably introduce the two of you." He laughed, nodding to the cardinal. "This is Ms. Nadia Weber. She's-"

"Oh, She's the head of the CARD" Slippy spoke up suddenly, seeming proud of himself for knowing something useful for once.

"The CARD?" Fox asked, his head tilted in confusion. "What in the world is that?"

"It stands for Cornerian Advanced Research Division." The cardinal spoke up, chuckling. "Although I'm not surprised you haven't heard of the CARD. We tend to stick to low profiles." She smiled, shaking her head slightly. "The CARD is in charge of making substantial investigations into potentially world-changing experiments, all to further Corneria's knowledge of the unknown. It also deals with inventing new breakthroughs in technology for the better of the Cornerian Commonwealth." She explained, chuckling as Fox's expression of confusion only worsened.

"What's she's saying Fox, is that the CARD's job is to make sure that there is nothing that can surprise the Cornerian Military. It's their job to come up with some of the most ridiculous things just to improve Corneria's development." Slippy tried to help explaining, and seemed to succeed if Fox's nod was anything to go by.

"Uh-huh. So why exactly is she here with you then, General?" Fox asked, rubbing a hand across his face in a sudden bout of fatigue. The sudden science lecture was causing his head to hurt.

"I wanted her to meet the legendary StarFox." General pepper chuckled. "Plus, she is almost directly responsible in designing the  _Aquilos_  that you will be taking. It's a special cruiser." He grinned.

"What's so special about it? The Great Fox looked better, and might work better." Fox grumbled. To say he was displeased with the cruiser was an understatement.

"I'll have you know that everything on the  _Aquilos_  is state of the art. From its shield generators, to its warp drives. You won't find anything like them on any other ship." The cardinal stated in a huff, regarding Fox with a displeased scowl.

"Fine fine, Sorry. So it might be state of the art, but how does it handle?" Fox asked with a defeated sigh. He clearly couldn't win this battle.

"Due to the use of automatic coordinate tracking, the  _Aquilos_  is able to work with little to no user interaction. Just simply put in the coordinates and it'll take you there. Sort of like Autopilot on most cruisers. The only difference is the  _Aquilos_  has only a .001 percent margin of error. So no suddenly de-warping in an atmosphere or asteroid field." Nadia explained, starting to walk towards the loading dock for the ship. "Now, I'd suggest you board and get ready for launch." She explained curtly.

Fox scowled at the surroundings, shaking his head as he walked up the boarding ramp to the bridge of the cruiser. Everything looked different, and it was a strange feeling when he paid attention to it. He took his spot in a rather normal seeming chair in the middle of the bridge, half-expecting the comfortable chair he had had back on the Great Fox. He sighed as he brought up the holopad for the coordinate controls, inputting the coordinates for Fichina and putting it away. "Alright, is everything ready for launch?" he asked Slippy, who was performing a systems check.

"All systems green, Fox." The toad replied, giving Fox a thumbs up as he took a spot near the radar monitor.

"Good, StarFox, prepare for launch. Our destination is Fichina. It shouldn't take us long to get there." He called out, partly out of tradition. He still had his doubts about how well this mission would end up going, but they were pushed aside as he heard the roar of the engines flaring to full strength as the ship was moved on a MagLev track to the launch area. The  _Aquilos_  shot off into the atmosphere after it reached the end of the MagLev. "Alright, Peppy, prepare to warp. It'll only take about a day of warp travel to get to Fichina." He instructed, getting only a nod in response.

"Warp Drive initiating, coordinates locked, entering warpspace." Peppy announced methodically. It was odd not having their robot companion around to take care of the smaller details of the ship's running. "Alright, we're in warp, now we can relax and let the ship's autopilot take care of the rest." The old hare chuckled, turning in his seat to scrutinize the team's leader.

"Good, it seems like Falco could use some rest." Fox grinned, hearing the falcon's pained groan for the umpteenth time that day. He chuckled as the bird gave him the middle finger, or feather in this case. "Well, serves you right, Falco. Getting drunk right after a big banquet, and before a mission at that." Fox grinned, hearing Falco's annoyed grumble.

"yeah yeah, Fox. Bite me. I didn't even know there was a mission when I was out getting wasted." The bird scowled. "Besides, why didn't you call us after you got the mission details anyway? Then I wouldn't have this godawful hangover." Falco sighed, rubbing the bridge of his beak.

"Well, I would have, had you not stumbled into the hotel right after I got the mission specs from Pepper." Fox rolled his eyes at his teammate's scoff. He noticed he seemed to be rolling his eyes a lot more often than usual for some reason.  _Gotta stop doing that._ He mentally told himself with a chuckle.

"Um, Fox. There's something you might want to look at." Slippy murmured from his station at the radar and systems analysis consoles.

"Huh, what is it Slip?" Fox asked, genuinely confused.

"Well, I did some analysis on the distress signal. Turns out, that General Pepper's analysis team was only half right. While the distress signal  _is_  coming from Orion base, it isn't an Orion base distress signal. In fact, it's not a distress signal matching any in the Cornerian database. So I'm pretty sure it's some other distress signal, possibly Venomian, that we're responding to here." To be perfectly honest, Fox wasn't all that surprised.

"So you're saying-"

"It's a trap, most likely."

A sigh. Then an angry grumble from Fox. "Well, balls." They were walking right into a trap. One probably set by Venomian remnants.

\----

General Pepper sat back in his overly ornate chair, staring at a hologram in front of him with a much younger coonhound tied to a chair, a blaster just barely in the frame pointed at her head. The only thing Pepper could bring himself to care about was the text below:  **SEND STARFOX OR SHE DIES.**

 


	3. The Calm Before A Storm

"Well balls." Fox sighed, rubbing at his temples in irritation. He knew there was something Pepper wasn't telling him, but he didn't expect this. "See if you can isolate the specifics of the signal, Slips, and try to determine whether it's Venomian or not. Once that gets done, then we can figure out what to do when we get to Fichina, because I'm pretty sure this ship won't stop until we get there." Fox ordered, brow furrowed in an angry scowl.

"What do you mean we'll figure out what to do once we get there?! For all we know, we might get there and be shot at!" Falco yelled, rolling his eyes as he made the preliminary preparations for the arwings to launch once out of warpspace. He held back a groan from the headache he was fighting from the alcohol.

"Falco's got a point, Fox. We need to come up with a plan of action now instead of later. While we're still in warp, we can't do much anything else anyway. So, it'd be better to have an idea of what to do now." Peppy sighed, all too used to Fox's fire-and-forget plans of action. 

"Fine fine, I get it. We need a plan now. Alright, Once we get into Fichinan airspace, I'll head out in the landmaster. Falco, you cover me in your arwing. Peppy, Slippy, you two are to stay with the  _Aquilos_. Set the shields to the highest they'll go without routing power from any other subsystems." Fox commanded, biting back a sigh as he took a glance at the ETA to Fichinan airspace. Approximately 16 hours. It was quicker than he expected, but not enough time for him to relax either. "Falco, you  _can_  fly your arwing right now, can't you?" He sighed, focusing a stern scowl at the falcon.

"Yeah, Foxie. I can. This hangover might be hurting, but I'm not drunk anymore. Don't worry. I ain't gonna shoot you on accident just because my head is hurting." Falco grumbled, muttering something that vaguely sounded like " _get off my back, jeez."_

Fox chuckled softly as he turned to make his way to wherever the hangar was located on the ship, deciding a check over their equipment was required. His heavy footsteps echoed in the empty corridors. He brought up the onboard schematics on his personal holopad that was installed into the data-tab on his left arm, following the directions to the hangar bay. It was a much greater difference than the Great Fox, the hangar bay was on the middle levels of the ship, instead of the Great Fox's bottom level. Upon entering the hangar, he was met with the familiar sights of his and the crew's arwings, as well as the Landmaster.

"Well, old pal, it's time to fly again, so soon after the last time, too." He chuckled, shaking his head, making his way to the landmaster. He rested his hand against the tank's hull. "We'll need ya, pal." He chuckled.  _Look at me now, talking to the equipment. Either I'm going insane, or this is just an aftereffect of stress._  He mentally chuckled. He opened the hatch for the landmaster and slid into the pilots seat, a tighter fit than the cockpit of an arwing. The console panels and controls were dark, only set to light up when the tank was in use. He sighed, leaving the tank's cockpit as he checked his holopad again, this time for their ETA to Fichina. 15 hours.  _Time really does pass slower when you're thinking about it, I guess._  Fox mentally sighed, deciding to take a better look around the cruiser.

_I need to fix things, before it gets too out of hand._ He gave one last weary sigh as he looked back on the arwings. 

* * *

" **Leaving warp space in approximately 15 minutes. All personnel please remain in a stable location, or risk physical shock.** " A robotic voice echoed around the rec-room of the  _Aquilos_  where Fox was currently going through a simple workout to ease his mind. " **Repeat, leaving warp space in 15 minutes. All personnel please remain in a stable location, or risk physical shock.** " Fox shook his head slightly as he made his way to the launch bay, intending on being ready to launch in the landmaster upon leaving warp.

"This is Fox, coming in from the landmaster in the launch bay. I suggest everyone be ready for their roles in our plan. We don't know what we're up against, and we won't have time to think once we exit warp." Fox commanded over a commlink to the bridge of the ship. "So, that means you Falco. Get down here to your arwing and be ready to launch." His hands were already busy initiating the startup protocol of the landmaster. The screens in front of him hummed to life as they displayed vital information one by one. The last thing to start up was the view screen. The whole top of the inside of the landmaster lit up with a full panoramic view of the launch bay. Beside him he could faintly hear the dull whine of Falco's arwing's G-diffuser's starting up.

" **Incoming transmission from an unknown location.** " The robotic voice of the ship rang in Fox's communicator, a notification popping up on Fox's scouter.

"Patch them through." Fox answered simply, wincing when he was met by a loud burst of static.

"Who is…state…busin…warp sig…" A voice spoke, though there was too much interference to make out anything important.

"Slippy, get a lock on the transmission and work to amplify it, I'm getting a ton of interference in the signal, can't even understand what's being said." Fox ordered quickly, tapping his fingers on an empty space in the landmaster, forced to wait.

" **Exiting warp space. You have arrived at Fichinan airspace.** " The ship announced, thoroughly unaffected by the goings on of its crew, much to Fox's displeasure.  _Why couldn't they have programmed some sort of awareness module into that stupid thing, anyway? I miss ROB._ Fox mused to himself, rubbing his temple to ward off a headache.

"Who is this? State your business being here with an unidentified warp signature." A voice came in over Fox's headset, startling him at the sudden intrusion upon his thoughts.

"This is Fox McCloud, of team StarFox. We are here about a distress signal from Orion base. Who the hell are you?" Fox answered, slightly confused. _Wasn't the Orion base supposed to be abandoned? Then why was there a direct commlink from the general coordinates of Orion base? This isn't making any sense. Is this another thing Pepper forgot to mention to us?_  Fox mentally growled, his thoughts confusing him more.

"McCloud? Of  _the_  StarFox? What the hell? We don't ever remember sending out a distress signal, let alone from Orion base." The voice murmured, sighing as it seemed to start a conversation with someone else on the other side of the comm-link.

"We'll be coming down with a landmaster and an arwing." Fox stated simply as he switch over to the local communications channel. "Slippy, how's it looking down there?"

"Not looking good, There are ships even in the launch space that are firing at each other. Seems like a civil war is going on or something. I can't tell which ships are which." Slippy explained, letting out a childish whine. 

"It's probably due to the Fichinian Civil Ordinance Riots. Workers have been getting paid less and less to do more work. Seems they finally got past the 'peaceful rebellion' stage." Peppy spoke up, providing the explanation Fox needed to feel less confused about the situation.

"Huh. Didn't figure they would go that far. Whatever. Launch the landmaster and the arwing. Hopefully they'll be too busy with each other to notice us." Fox sighed, feeling the landmaster jolt as it was brought into a atmospheric entry pod. He gripped the controls of the landmaster's boost system and braced himself. The catapult launched the landmaster out of the hangar and into the recesses of space on a direct course to the surface of Fichina. He groaned momentarily as the G-Diffusers on the landmaster kicked in, dispersing the G-force throughout the entire vehicle, and finally relieving the pressure on its pilot.

"Looks like we're good to go, they're too busy with each other to shot at little old us." Falco's voice came over as the atmospheric entry capsule around the landmaster started to rumble due to hitting the atmosphere and using bow-installed thrusters to make its content's landing a little easier. "I guess that makes part of our mission a little easier. But damn. For Pepper to throw us into this in the middle of a civil war… He probably knew about it too, just sending us in to try to fix it, I'm sure."

"That's enough, Falco. We'll have a talk with General Pepper after we're done here. Right now, just focus on staying out of the crossfire." Fox sighed, gripping the controls of the landmaster again as he felt it slow down, before being jostled by the landing. The capsule split apart, allowing Fox to drive the landmaster off of it and onto the snow covered ground of Fichina. "Alright, Peppy, can you upload a nav-link location for Orion base from our position?" Fox's request was met with an almost immediate response, as the simple navigation settings in the landmaster showed that the aforementioned base was only about 50 kilometers to the northeast. "Alright, landmaster, heading to destination. Falco, you got the airspace covered? There are no threats in the air, correct?"

"Yup. Fox,It's all empty here now. I don't like the feeling of this.." Falco replied over the voice-only link. "It's kind of uncomfortable, knowing that there aren't any infantry troops or any ground battles. You'd think they'd be trying to take ground."

"Yeah, that's bothering me too. We'll play that one by ear though. Right now, we need to keep going. Northeast. Head out." Fox nodded, closing the comm. link and pushing the throttle forward, turning the landmaster to the appropriate direction and setting it on the simple autopilot it came with. He decided to do a quick survey of the area, using the landmaster's turret mounted cameras, yet all he was met with was the bleak whiteness of Fichina.  _I've got a bad feeling about this. It can't be a civil war. There aren't any infantry units or even sub-atmospheric combat. And I know they have fighters, we've had to deal with a lot of them back in the Lylat wars._ He was broken out of his thoughts with a rather steady beeping. It was his Data-tab, telling him he had a signal trying to establish a link with him. "This is Fox."

"McCloud, I see you've made it to the surface. Good. They haven't targeted you." The same voice from in the hangar bay remarked with a relieved sigh.

"They? Who the hell are they?" Fox asked, starting to get irritated by the other speaker's deliberate vagueness.

"Well, I was going to explain to you what was going on before you cut me off and entered atmosphere. You saw the cruisers in space, right? Well, only one of those was Fichinan. The other was a ship that had been infected with a rogue A.I program. Ever since the Cornerian Commonwealth Bureau tried to implement these A.I to make working in the Fichinan quarries easier, they've been on a rampage. Something about some rogue programming gone wrong, or infected with some sort of virus. And I'm assuming that's what the distress signal from Orion base is coming from."The voice explained, causing Fox to break into a scowl again.  _So it was a trap. But not from venom? Then what about that Venomian signal Slippy found? Is that just a trick, or was it due to an A.I virus as well?_ "-ould use your help." Was all Fox heard after he zoned out to his thoughts.

"What? So it's all an A.I, not Venom? Cause the distress signal we were receiving wasn't Orion base itself, but only in the general location, and that signal was a Venomian distress signal. Are you sure you've got the right information? Who are you anyway?" Fox scowled at his scouter, due to a lack of objects to direct his ire to.

"I am Sergeant Jason Polk, sir. Leader of this sector of the Fichinan military." He responded, before chatter on the other side of the link caused him to have to stop a moment.

"Uh-huh. Listen, I and another of my crewman are en route to Orion base. If there's anything you need to know for when we get there we will contact you. McCloud out." Fox sighed, quickly cutting the link before the young sounding sergeant could continue. He wasn't in the mood to deal with authority right now.

A few moments after the revealing conversation, Fox's nav-link let out a beep, signaling arrival at the destination. A quick scan with the landmaster's turret revealed absolutely nothing substantial, just more of the expanse of whiteness, much to Fox's dismay. "Alright, Falco, Make your landing and we'll enter the base on foot." Fox instructed, opening the hatch to the landmaster and making sure his trusty blaster was at his hip and hoping he didn't have to use it.

"Gotcha, Fox. Coming in for a landing, watch your head." Falco called cheerily.  _Seems like his hangover is gone._  Fox thought dryly, shaking his head at his teammate's antics. He started towards the base, drawing his blaster just for good measure.

As they stepped into the base, Fox noticed the lights were all off.  _Funny, if this base was just in use, why are there no lights, and even if the power had gone off, there is always an emergency generator. Something isn't right._ Fox turned to Falco, exchanging hand signals between them. ' _ **lights off, not right, stay quiet.**_ ' He communicated, turning the nearest corner and continuing down the long corridors to the center of the base, where the main consoles were located.

Fox crept on his toes, the soft footsteps swallowed by the vastness of the hallways. He tried to be as small a target as possible despite the obvious signs that no one had been inhabiting this base for quite some time.  _Okay, this is just getting creepy. I would understand if there were enemies lying in ambush, but even then there'd be telltale signs, but this just looks like it's never been touched at all in years. That bad feeling I had is only getting worse._  Fox grumbled in his mind as he checked around a corner that was supposed to lead to the central room. He expected more of nothing, but what he got was a much more surprising sight.

"Well well," came a familiar voice from the central room, followed by a hollow hacking and wheezing. "Look what the cat dragged in."

"What are you doing- What is  _he_  doing here?!" Falco exclaimed, but Fox barely heard him. His gaze was trapped by the figure before him. A lump of emaciated flesh and grey fur, purple implant glowing dimly in the faintly lit room.

"Long time no see," The figure coughed more, groaning in pain. "Pup."


	4. Balancing Act

"Wolf…" Fox growled lowly, eyes narrowing at the lupine figure in his vision.  _And yet again, StarWolf shows up and makes everything infinitely more complicated._  "Where's your little gang? They gonna come out and ambush us from behind? That's low, even for you." Fox spat, glaring daggers at the lupine. Falco apparently had different thoughts, pulling his blaster out and aiming at Wolf, pulling the trigger. He barely had time to register what happened before he was forced to dodge his own blue energy bolt, reflected from the violet reflector shield surrounding Wolf.

"Now now, birdbrain; don't ya know that it's not a good idea ta attack an unarmed opponent?" Wolf chuckled, making an effort to stand as his bones creaked. He raised his hands in the universal surrender gesture, making no reach for his weapons.

"Falco, don't attack recklessly. Didn't you already forget our only real rule? Only attack when attacked yourself." Fox chided, sighing.

"But this is Wolf we're talking about. The one who tried to kill you, multiple times mind you." Falco grumbled, keeping his blaster trained on the lupine. "Why should we follow that stupid rule if we know he's going to try to kill you again?!"

"What if I said I wasn't here to kill either of you morons? And that I've kind of been holed up here for the past few weeks. No matter how you look at it, I'm in no shape to attack two of the best mercenaries Corneria can employ." Wolf shook his head, sighing. "It's kinda sad, actually, that I can't beat the two of ya into a nice bloody mess." Wolf chuckled, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Yeah yeah, fuzzball, laugh it up while you still can. There's still two of us and one of you." Falco grumbled, gripping the handle of his blaster a bit tighter than before. "So don't get any funny ideas or nothing."

"Oh, I'm well aware that, between the two of you, I'm outmatched, but that's not really a good idea for you to attack me anyway, cause that's no way to repay the guy who technically saved your lives." Wolf smirked in his insufferable 'know-it-all' way. Fox sighed as he rubbed his temple to ward off the annoyance again.

"Both of you just shut up." Fox snapped, grumbling to himself. "It's really not helping either of your cases to keep arguing like this." He sighed. "What the hell are you doing here anyway, Wolf? And why shouldn't we shoot you?"

"I'm only here due to circumstance. I came here on a covert mission from the CSB, after we saved your asses from tha' aparoids. I guess they just desperately needed some scapegoat or some shit, cause no sooner than I started this mission did all hell break loose and the A.I they slagged me with go AWOL and I end up stuck here because they ended up stealing my ship." Wolf sighed, his tail twitching behind him irritably. "Fuckin' assholes, that thing cost me a fortune. Twice!" He scowled, glowering at the floor for good measure.

"Wait, they gave  _you_ the AI that started this? Didn't the CSB ban Artificial Intelligences due to what happened with that robot in sector X a few years ago?" Fox blinked. He remembered something about the Sargent Polk guy telling him about a crazed AI but he didn't register it immediately. _  
_

"Why are you telling us this crap, fuzzball? What have you got to gain by telling us your life story anyway?" Falco shot the lupine a glare.

"Hey hey hey, stop it Falco. He might have nothing to gain from telling us this, but I'm pretty sure he'd have nothing to gain by lying to us, especially not with two blasters trained on him. But Falco does have a good point, why the hell  _are_  you telling us this?" Fox scowled, thoroughly confused to his rival's motives.

"Because, like you said, Mercenary Rule 1: Do not attack unless attacked first. And also because I'm on a mission from the Cornerian Security Bureau, and I'm assuming you're on a similar mission, most likely from that General everyone looks up to." Wolf rolled his eye, lavender meeting emerald in an amused grin.

"Uh, well, yeah actually. General Pepper sent us here due to a signal from this base. That was you?" Fox dropped his blaster, puzzlement apparent on his face. "That would explain why it was Venomian." He shrugged, sighing as he rubbed the bridge of his nose again out of habit.

"Signal? As in distress signal? Why tha' hell would I need to use one of those?" Wolf grumbled. "I'm perfectly capable of holding my own." If Fox valued his own life less at the moment he'd call his rival a petulant child, but as it stands, they both didn't need a trigger going off. 

"Well, we're not sure either, to be fair. So you didn't send out a distress signal at all? Not even by, say, biotic implant subsystems?" Fox asked, eyebrow cocked in confusion. This was all starting to make even less sense than before.

"No. My implant isn't designed to suddenly broadcast distress signals for any reason. Hell, it's just an ocular implant, not some farfetched supercomputer." Wolf sighed, staring at Fox with an amused expression at the other's superfluous thought process. "Although those stupid A.I bots might have pushed something in my Wolfen when they fuckin' hijacked the thing." Wolf grumbled, physically wincing at the mention of having his prized ship stolen.

"Huh. Seems likely enough." Fox grumbled, idly tapping his chin in thought. "Although that would explain a portion of it, what I don't get is why it's been broadcasting a signal for a few days now."

"Huh? Days? But the signal shouldn't persist for days unless it's being maintained, otherwise It's supposed ta stop itself after a few hours." Wolf mused, leaning against a nearby wall with a grunt. "Stupid fucks! They've been Keeping the signal up as a _trap!_ " He snarled, gears in his head almost audibly whirring and grinding.

"Huh. Well, I've got an idea then. Wolf works with us, and when we're done with our respective missions, we can all go our merry ways." Fox sighed, shooting Falco a pointed  _don't-say-anything_  glare. Pulling the bird aside, he spoke in a whisper. "That way, we have his strengths on our side, and we can get more information. That Jacob Polk guy I don't trust, and I'm sure we'll need Wolf for something. And if he decides to attack us, we've got the Aquila in orbit, we can just take care of him then, it'd be 4 on 1." Fox explained, ignoring Falco's scoffs of irritation. "Plus, we do kind of owe him for helping us defeat the Aparoid queen." Fox sighed.

"Fine fine, I get it, He saved our lives and now we have to do something nice for him just because." Falco growled, tapping his foot impatiently. "Whatever, just do what needs to be done. As long as his little lizard buddy isn't around, I'd be much better off."

"Alright. Wolf, we'll help you get your Wolfen back, but in return, you're going to have to work with us while we're here." Fox explained. Wolf's expression was priceless, a mix of confusion and surprise, with a hint of doubt thrown in. Fox chuckled slightly. "And don't worry. No strings attached." He nodded, putting his blaster back in its holster at his hip.

"Really now? And why would the  _great_ Star Fox need to help poor me?" Wolf sighed, pushing off from the wall he was leaning against casually. "Not like I really need your help, but there's more of those robot fuckers out there, and I'm pretty sure I'm not in the right state of being to take on more than a few." Wolf grumbled, rubbing his shoulder slightly, stepping over to the main computer console in the room.

"Yeah, sure. Fuzzball can't even admit when he needs help." Falco sneered, twirling his blaster on a finger before holstering it with a chuckle. "It's okay; we can take them out no matter what. We've got the landmaster outside just waiting for them." He grinned.

"You have a what now?" Wolf grumbled, clearly confused. "The hell is a landmaster?" He frowned, an ear twitching in aggravation.

"It's a tank, essentially. The specifics aren't important, what's important is that we get moving ASAP." Fox chuckled, shaking his head with a grin.

Wolf nodded, tapping a few keys on the large holocom in front of him, bringing up schematics for floor plans of other bases, and pressing the side of his bionic implant every so often with a sigh. "Camera 10's got movement on the southern side of the base. It's too bright to make anything out, but there's a large possibility that it's those androids again coming back to finish the job. I managed to trick them with a fake-death pill, but that won't work twice with them. 

"Come on." He motioned for Wolf and Falco to follow him out. He heard Wolf mutter a few choice words under his breath again, something about how he ended up in these situations.

They made their way to the entrance, shielding their eyes from Solar's reflection off the sheer white snow on the ground. Fox let out a sigh when his eyes finally adjusted from the dank darkness of the inside of the base. "Damn. It's fuckin' bright out here." He heard Wolf growl.

"Tha's for sure." Falco muttered, scowling. "It wasn't this bright when we got here, was it?" He turned to Fox, sighing.

"You know, it really wasn't. Something must be up." Fox tapped his chin as he watched Falco move to get into his Arwing, starting it up and initiating the launch mechanics, which left Wolf with Fox, much to the latter's displeasure. "Ugh, and of course he goes to leave me here." He muttered to himself. "Alright Wolf, we'll have to get in the Landmaster. The Great Fox is up in orbit, and we can work on finding your Wolfen from there." He sighed.

"You want me to go up there on  _your_  ship? Just to try to get mine back?" Wolf scowled, raising a brow at the ridiculous suggestion.

"Well what do you suggest? Just wandering around here to find your ship? Or do you want to stay here and just wait for it to magically appear again?" Fox sighed, he was getting real tired of everyone asking stupid questions.

"Well…" Wolf trailed off, before closing his mouth before anything else could be said. "Fine. You win that one." He scowled, following Fox to the landmaster as the vulpine got in, motioning Wolf in after. "What? You think I should get in there? With you?" he asked, deadpan. "you're kidding, right?"

"Unless you want to deal with the cold out there, then yes." Fox sighed, leveling his gaze on the lupine. "So, There's enough room in here for you to not have to be cramped, and we can make our way to the  _Aquilos'_ LZ." Fox explained, biting back a snarky remark as Wolf lowered himself into the landmaster.

"Fox. Come in. This is Peppy. We've got some unpleasant news for ya. We're noticing a huge wave of what looks to be ground units heading the direction of your landing zone. It might be a kill-party, with the numbers we're seeing. Be Careful out there Fox. Rendezvous in 0100 hours at the LZ. Peppy Out."

Fox sighed as he nodded, the transmission from the old hare cutting out abruptly as presumably they left minimum land-comm range for now. "Alright. LZ probably hot. Falco, you still have a couple bombs on your arwing?" He called over the local broadcast.

"Yeah, A couple. Ground assault bombing run?" He could almost hear the falcon's smirk. 

"For sure. We're going to have fun with these guys. Let's see if they can stop a landmaster." Fox grinned widely, baring his fangs in anticipation of finally getting back into action.

"Hey pup, You might want to look at the radar of the sheer amount of what's ahead." Wolf interjected, jaw set firmly in an uncomfortable grimace. 

"The radar? There can't be that...many...of them." Fox trailed off, the mass of blips on the radar readout almost overloading the display, probably up in the hundreds of thousands.

"Well…son of a bitch."

"You can say that again."


	5. Light in the dark

Fox growled as he pulled hard right on the control stick, free hand working to stabilize the g-diffusers in the landmaster and opening a one-way comms channel to Falco. "Abort mission. More bogeys than we can take on alone." He announced quickly as he slammed forward on the thrust as soon as they were pointed away from the coming horde. 

"Don't think birdbrains going to be happy about having to retreat." Wolf chuckled slightly, grunting as the sudden acceleration threw him off his feet. Seconds later he could make out Falco's distinct arwing fly past the tank towards the horde, making out a very static-filled "one-sec" come from the radio before the unmistakable sound of a few smart-bombs exploding less than a kilometer away brought his attention to the rear camera console. 

"Pretty sure your idiot friend just almost killed us." He grumbled angrily while Fox pushed the tank as fast as its boosters would let it go. "On the plus side, he bought us a few minutes. They'll now have to circumvent those craters he made. " 

"We can thank him later." Fox scowled. A few more flipped switches and another comms channel was open. "Landmaster to Aquila. Have you guys gotten the transmat working?" A few seconds of silence on the other end of the line made Fox's fur stand on end as he turned the turret around to fire blindly at the mass of bodies behind them. 

"Transmat available in t-minus 15" a metallic voice echoed through the comms and began counting down. 

"You might want to braceyourself, Wolf." Fox groaned as he slammed the landmaster to a halt. Wolf had enough time to look confused before he was sent tumbling hard into the back of Fox's chair. One glance out the main viewscreen showed particles of light and dirt starting to float around the tank. Within seconds there was a bright flash and everything moving faster than it should and then they were in the hangar of the dreadnaught class ship.

"Thank god that worked this time." Fox signed as he went to push open the hatch to get out. Wolfs hand on his arm stopped him suddenly. 

"Wait a second. Somethings not right here." Wolf muttered, deciding to follow the gut feeling he had. "Shouldn't your crewmates have come up here by now? You know, to make sure you're in one piece." He scowled as he opened a comms to Falco. "Birdbrain, you alive?" He spoke quietly, as if expecting someone eavesdropping. 

The line was silent for a minute before the avians voice filled the channel. "Fox, where are you? We tried to transmat you up to the ship but you weren't at the provided coordinates " the bird all but shouted before everything went silent and the landmaster shut down.

"God dammit." Fox growled as he quickly grabbed his blaster from where he had secured it, handing Wolf his spare."Get ready for a bit of exploring." He growled again, brow set in determination. 

Wolf wasted no time grabbing the spare blaster and making sure his own currently un-charged plasmacaster was secured on his leg. "Way ahead of you pup. Almost feels like my academy days again." He grinned ferally, stretching a bit as they hopped out of the tank, his joints protesting angrily. 

"Don't know what kind of academy days you had." Fox chuckled. "Especially if they involved getting abducted on a regular basis." He grinned. He couldn't help shake the feeling that something about the way the two of them were bantering was more than familiar. Wolf seemed to notice him zone out a moment, waving his hand in front of the vulpine. 

"Hey hey hey. Can't have ya spacing out on me or we might actually get spaced " he looked concerned, before chuckling a little at his lame joke. Fox let out a pained groan.  

"Remind me to never let you make terrible jokes. That actually hurt a little." He chuckled as they made their way down the hallway connected to the hangar they arrived in. His ears twitched as he heard heavy footsteps, metal on metal, and he looked around for a hiding spot. Finding a duct on the side he nodded towards it and made the silent hand call to get him to move. 

Once they were both in the duct he slid the vent cover loosely back on and sidled away from the opening to not be seen, pushing close to Wolf in the slightly cramped space as the veritable army of footsteps continued walking past. He could pick out some chatter and voices but not enough to discern where they were. 

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt Wolf lean heavily against him a few minutes later, breathing deeply and evenly. "Can't believe you feel asleep on me."He groaned quietly. The footsteps still patrolled outside and didn't give signs of stopping anytime soon. He sighed and closed his eyes. Might as well take a page from Wolfs book and take a quick nap. He set a silent alarm on his wristcomm, making sure it'd bring him back awake in an hour. 

Flashes of his days at the flight academy filled his thoughts as he rested. All accompanied by a friend he couldn't quite remember before the day he got the news his mother died and then his father's death. He tried focusig on this sudden blank spot in his memory but soon he was woken up, but not by his alarm. He blinked awake to Wolf's arm wrapped around him in the small space and the lupine looking over him with concern. 

" you okay pup? You looked like you were having a bad time." He raised a questioning eyebrow. "The footsteps have all gone, and I hear a slight rumbling off to our three. Might be something worth checking out. Also tried to get a message to your teammates but haven't gotten through." He sighed. "Looks like wherever we are has a tough-ass jamming signal." He grunted as he stood out of the duct with another stretch. 

"Here's hoping we can figure this out. I can definitely tell we're in orbit though. The artificial gravity is still messing with me." Fox groaned and stretched with Wolf, who gave him a curious tilt of the head. "Long story. Involved a bit of a mess up on the great Fox. " 

"Hmm, thought I was the only one that messed up running a large base." Wolf laughed seeing Fox's own curious gaze. "I'll explain when we get off here." He nodded, pointing his blaster down the hallway as cover for the advancing vulpine. 

"Seems like we both have our fair share of stories to tell." Fox muttered playfully as Wolf caught up with him as they traded point. 

They eventually found what looked to be a small blast door, with the unmistakable sound of a nuclear reactor running behind it. "They have a nuclear reactor on this thing? I thought every aerospace company switched to biochemical fission a century or so back " Fox wondered aloud, shooting Wolf an alarmed glance as he heard footsteps behind the door. 

"Yeah, too many workers got irradiated from them. I wonder why they have a whole crew behind this door " the larger canine growled as he put an ear to the thick metal. He could hear voices but couldn't make out anything other than the occasional rattling of large amounts of metal. 

"Well as soon as we find out where we are we can report this to the cornerian government and get it shut down asap." He growled quietly, before suddenly and quickly stalking away from the door around a corner and pulling Fox with him, unconsciously holding the vulpine close to his chest to take up less room. "Shh." He started when Fox made a noise to protest. "Someone's coming." He whispered right into Fox's ear. 

Sure enough, a few seconds later, as the pair all but held their breath to stay hidden, a figure walked into view. A tall white-furred ape strode up to the blast doors, swiped a card at the keypad, and disappeared behind the heavy metal barrier. 

Another hour into their attempt to escape, Wolf received a message on his comms, from the Aquila asking their coordinates and what happened. Wolf responded with as much as he knew, ducking into what looked to be a cargo storage and pulling Fox in with him to make a call to the vulpine's capital ship. 

"Fox, thank god you're okay. I almost couldn't believe that Wolf would message us. It was tough cracking through the jammig signal but we did it." Slippys voice broke through the static of the call, which Fox had to remind him he was in hostile territory. 

"We don't know what happened, really. We ordered a transmat and the ship answered, I guess another ship must have gotten the signal too, somehow leeching onto our signal." He scowled angrily at the vague idea anyone could hack their transmatlinks. 

"We got a lock on and transmatted the landmaster, but you guys weren't there." Falco chimed in, scowling at the comm camera. "I was worried that the scumbag you're with got ya."

"Hey, now's not the time to be throwing names, birdbrain. We'll try to get you an exact location for extraction. All we know is we're on a nuclear powered dreadnaught class cruiser. " Wolf explained quickly to snub out any argument. "We've gotta go, footsteps approaching." He cut the comms quickly, pulling Fox up against him again to reduce the space the two took up and hiding in the shadows again. 

"We have them somewhere on the ship, sir. We are just having trouble finding them. their tank was taken away by their team probably, but they're still in the ship... Yes sir. We won't let you down, uncle." The tall white ape from before came into view briefly as he walked out. 

Once the coast was clear again Fox bit back an outraged shout. "That was Andrew, wasn't it? That Oikenny guy you ran with in the Lylat wars like, 15 years ago?" He whisper-shouted at wolf, only moving to turn around in the lupine's lap and forgetting their position. 

Wolf shot him a curious look. "I ran with a monkey that long ago?" He tilted his head and tapped his chin trying to remember. "Can't remember much about back then, really." He shrugged before moving to stand up and realizing Fox's weight still sitting on him. 

"Yeah, he showed up again at the start of the aparoid's initial invasion." Fox nodded as the memory came back. "He's supposed to be dead." He scowled. 

"Maybe that wasn't that ape guy I supposedly flew with. Maybe it's another monkey with a weird uncle." Wolf shrugged again before stopping to chuckle again at his own lame joke. "Heheh, get it? A monkeys uncle?" He continued when Fox shook his head at him. "Cause it means they're going... Never mind." Wolf all but pouted as he stood up after the fox. 

"Riveting. Fox deadpanned. "No more bad jokes or puns until we're off the ship alive." Fox groaned.

"Shouldn't be long then. I managed to hack into the basic files and get a layout of the ship and we're close to some escape shuttles."Wolf chuckled softly as he rolled his eyes at the vulpine. "Just for that I'll make so many bad jokes when we're done here." He chuckled as they made their way to the secondary hangar where the emergency shuttles were held. 

"Oh thank god." Fox cried happily as they quickly borded one of the small ships and set a course off the ship and to where the Aquila should have been. They got a comms channel notification once they were clear of the ship. 

"Well well well. Glad to see you two aren't too incompetent to get off a ship. Not that I made it that hard for you. As much as Uncle would liked to have you two alive, he'll have to wait." The voice chuckled. "But make no mistake, I  _will_ come for you again. And next time it won't be so easy." 

"Good luck with that. We're StarFox, we won't go down that easy." Fox challenged, feeling Wolf grab his arm in reassurance-- and he really needed to figure out Wolf's sudden obsession with touching him -- but he felt like he could overcome anything. 

"Oh, but under the force of Uncle Andross' army, you won't have a chance " the voice taunted before the comms cut out abruptly. 

"That wasn't Andrew, Fox." Wolf growled, fangs bared. "That was Andrews younger sibling."

"Do you know a name?" Fox blinked, confused.

"No, just that he's more than a little unstable."Wolf scowled at the blank screen. " and if he has us as his next target, its a sure thing he won't quit until we're dead."


	6. Crossing fields of glass

Crossing fields of glass

 

Fox could feel the annoyance from Falco once he and Wolf made it back to the Aquila. He could almost hear the argument from the rest of the team. This kind of thing has happened one time too many. “We can’t let you go and do anything on your own can we?” he could hear them gang up on him, and he couldn’t blame them, this was probably the 5th time in the past few years he’d gotten kidnapped or otherwise rendered unable to help his team. It almost was a once a year ordeal to him.

 

“Well that was unpleasant.” Wolf muttered under his breath after the two of them made it to the bridge once they were told they had a message from the general. Fox couldn’t help notice the worried glances the lupine kept sending his way. He sat down in his captain’s chair a little too fast, forgetting it wasn’t the old thing from the Great Fox.

 

“Well, let’s hear what the general has to say.” he shifted in the seat, pressing the return call button on the terminal linked to the chair itself. The old bloodhound’s image popped up in the middle of the room, and the general jumped a little. 

 

“Ah, Star Fox, I didn’t expect you to get back to me so quickly.” General Pepper shifted a little on his feet, as if he was in the middle of something when the call went through.  “Glad to hear from you.” he adjusted the lapels of his suit, obviously unhappy with the clothing choice.  “Any news of the beacon?” he asked with a tilt of his head.

 

Fox nodded in his confirmation, stepping aside to let Wolf into the picture. “Yeah, it was his ship.” he nodded, jerking his chin at the lupine. “Turns out there’s a lot more here than we expected.” he hummed in annoyance. “Upon returning to the landmaster and trying to get back onto our ship we got thrown off course by someone claiming to be another of Andross’ relatives.” he tried to keep the cross look off his face but judging by Pepper’s slight eyebrow raise he failed at that. 

 

“Andross? Why is it never anything simple like some guy trying to make a name for himself?” Pepper sighed, eyes closing for a deep breath in and a shaky exhale of fatigue. “Did you at least get a name? Or did they follow the typical ‘name-not-necessary’ cliche?” he sighed.

 

“Bingo, not a name at all, just that he was related to Andross. No real idea where he’s going next either. He mentioned some cryptic stuff about plans and all but we were too focused on getting back to the ship.” Fox twisted his face up as he realized he vaguely recalled a name to put with the voice of the derange ape-relative.

 

“Understood.” Pepper pinched the bridge of his nose, his age slowly getting to him as he waved a hand dismissively at the holograms in front of him. “Anything else to report, Star Fox?” 

 

“Other than an army of Rogue Robots that were trying to kill us? Nothing.”

 

“Wait what?” Pepper leaned forward, brows furrowing in anger. The robotic’s division hadn’t released any of their schematics to anyone else in the entire star system, let alone anyone on fichina. “Elaborate, now.” he scowled.

 

Fox blinked a moment at the bloodhound’s floating visage and nodded, not used to the snappy tone of the canine’s anger. “Ah, well when we rescued O’Donnell here, he made a note that Rogue AI or something like it had shot him down and taken his ship. And in our escape, we were set upon by a large wave of the robots. They didn’t look anything like our usual VI machines or androids. Weird looking things for sure.” he mused, Wolf nodding along.

  
“All monsters, too. Those blasters they were firing at us were at least anti-tank strength. At least, regular tank anti-tank. Guess the Land-whatsit is better than regular military stuff.” Wolf hummed, shaking his head. “But they were all armed with them, well over a hundred thousand. And who knows how many more are scattered across Lylat.” 

 

“Wow, they were that tough? Thank god for the Landmaster’s advance armor schematics.” Fox winced at the thought of being in a regular land vehicle with those blasters. 

 

“Back on track, guys.” Pepper chuckled, glad to see that they weren’t letting the experience get to them. “Did they have anything to identify them to any specific faction on them?” 

 

“Well, they were Silver-blue.” Wolf piped up as Fox twisted his muzzle in an attempt to remember. The vulpine blinked as he realized and nodded in agreement with the lupine. 

 

“yeah, real weird looking.” he added. “It kept shifting colors depending on the lighting.”

 

“Ablative Ion Armor.” Slippy piped up from the side as he tapped a few keys at his console. “Something experimental due to how finicky it is about weather. How they managed to stabilize it like that in the cold of Fichina is a good thing to question.” he trailed off as he went to making notes, presumably how to apply the same armor to the arwings and other vehicles.

 

Pepper nodded and frowned adjusting the lapels of his suit again. “That doesn’t ring a bell. I’ll send the info down to the tech department to see if they can come up with anything.” he nodded. “Any other info?”

 

“None to report, Sir.” Fox nodded, giving a small mock salute. “I’ll keep in touch, but for now we’re heading back to Corneria.”

 

“Understood. We’ll be ready for you. Our tech department has a new development for you when you land.” Pepper stated with a nod and a smile. “I think you’ll find it worth it.” he chuckled. 

 

“Hm, sounds intriguing. StarFox Out.” he nodded as he shut the communications off and turned to his team. “Slip, set Course back to Corneria. Preferably Hyperspace jump too, rather not spend too much time in space for now.” he shuddered and stood up, stretching with a few pops and a groan. “I’m gonna go get a shower and maybe a nap.” he yawned. “And Wolf, we need to find you space to crash.”

 

Wolf nodded, leaning back against the railing and chuckling. “Please god tell me you have food on this ship.” At Fox’s nod and chuckle he pushed off the rail and started walking to where the mess hall should have been located. “Good, I’m starving.” he laughed. 

 

Fox led Wolf to grab snacks and then to grab a room. Wolf stopped him, making an excuse of wanting decent hot food and whining at soup being the only option. Fox leaned against the counter as Wolf heated up some soup and made a sandwich. “So why did you go through so much trouble to rescue me, pup?”

 

“I wouldn't say I went through a lot of trouble.” Fox shrugged, scratching at the fur on the back of his neck out of a habit he couldn't remember developing. “Just found ya in trouble, and don't want the only pilot to be able to match me dying like that.” He shrugged again, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone. 

 

“Uh-huh.” Wolf grinned at the fox. “That's the reason you didn't just kill me yourself then?” He prodded the issue more. Fox didn't have an answer for that for a few seconds. 

 

“If I did, then I wouldn't have any reason to get better.” Fox muttered, again mostly to himself as a piece of a puzzle he didn't even know he was involved with fit into place. He knew if anything were to happen to the lupine in front of him he might lose all drive as a pilot. 

 

“What was that?” Wolf blinked, having heard Fox but wanting that confirmation for himself.  “You're muttering again.” He scooted closer, poking the vulpine in the forehead. 

 

“N-nothing.” Fox sputtered quickly. “It wouldn't have been fair to kill you like that either. I don't think I could have anyway. Even without weapons and all, you’re stronger than I am and have an advantage.” Fox defended quickly before Wolf could make a jab at his choice of words. 

 

“Riigghh. Cause an underfed me can overpower a prime condition you.” Wolf grinned, shoving Fox with his shoulder.  _ When did he get so close to me? _ Fox found himself thinking as he noticed the closeness again. 

 

“Yep. That's totally the issue.” He started, interrupted by the beeping of the timer for the soup. Wolf poured it into a bowl and offered him an empty one. He blinked owlishly at the lupine who then shrugged and put it up, happily munching on his sandwich. 

 

\-----

 

A large tiger sat at a chair on a balcony overlooking the recently cleaned beaches and ocean of zoness. He sipped at the bright blue and green tinged drink in his glass and listened to the wind chimes play their chaotic tune. 

 

“Sir, the reports are in from fichina. Mr. Bowman says that the tests were successful. The new models of robotic soldiers leaked to us by our contact in Corneria were able to put up a match for both Star Wolf and Star Fox.” An otter in a white suit and sunglasses nodded, bowing his head in deference. 

 

“Good to hear. Let Mr. Bowman know that he will be rewarded upon moving to phase two.” He turned to smile at the otter, more of a wicked grin from the otter’s angle on the deck. 

 

“Absolutely sir. And if he asks what the reward is?” The other male tilted his head a little in curiosity. 

 

“Just tell him it’ll be something worth his time.” The tiger waved his hand dismissively, shooing the other male away. “Now if you don't mind, I'd rather not be disturbed while I soak up some of this sun.” He turned back around, pressing a button and activating a small lev-bed for his comfort. 

 

“As you wish, sir.” The otter bowed and left quickly.

 

“Hmm. Star Fox. There’s something special about you. Andross’ interest is not something so easily gained “ he purred with a smirk as he pulled up the schematics that the robotic soldiers had recovered from the tank the mercenaries had used. “But you do have such wonderful gadgets. So I guess you get a pass now “ he laughed as he slipped his sunglasses back over his eyes. 

 

\-----

 

“Sir, have you got a hold of team Star Fox yet?” A small beagle asked as he poked his head into the general’s office with the go-ahead. 

 

“Yes, that was them I was talking to.” The bloodhound nodded and flicked through some more files of paper. “They have another guest with them though, so if you could have another of the gifts ready for one Wolf O’Donnell then that would be great, Dr. Serref. “ the bloodhound smiled at the beagle, his chin dipping ever so slightly in dismissal. 

 

The beagle nodded and stepped back out through the door, he hurried towards the research and development department. He stopped to let a tall man pad beside him in the cramped hallway. He tried to pinpoint the other male’s features, but he had trouble getting a good look at his face with the too loose suit jacket and pants to the tie too vibrant to be for a business meeting. Maybe it was the way his hat rested on his head that put too much shadow over the face. 

 

The beagle blinked and tried to remember what stopped him in the hall. He shrugged, brought a hand up to adjust the glasses on his face and stopped with his hand came back wet, red with blood from a sudden nosebleed. “Huh. Didn't think the air was that dry up here.” He muttered to himself, shrugging again and hurrying to the bathroom on the floor to clean up his face before meeting the R&D department for the new information adjustment. 

 

> \----------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update guys. Lots to deal with in my life right now so can't really write well enough to publish my work. :/ so here ya go.


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